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This review looks at why small businesses need to stop being complacent about their networks and at what they can do to maintain their competitive edge as they follow the big boys down the route of increasing collaboration and other bandwidth-hungry applications likely to impact on network performance and availability.

Website now displays a job-seeking advert in place of live webcam feeds

A Russian website that offered live feeds from thousands of baby monitors, web cameras and CCTV systems has been shut down by its administrator, who told V3: "I do not want to be a bad guy anymore."

The Insecam website has replaced the feeds from unsecured webcams with a message that reads: "Programmer looking for a good remote job." Skills listed include Linux, FreeBSD, C/C++, Python and MySQL, alongside an email address.

First revealed by UK data watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the Insecam site provided live streams from webcams which had no password protection or relied on default manufacturer passwords.

Explaining why the webcam feeds were taken down, the administrator told V3: "I do not want to run it any more. I do not want to be a bad guy anymore."

It would appear that scrutiny from industry bodies and the world's media persuaded the owner that the content was no longer appropriate.

The ICO went on to warn anyone who uses a webcam to reset their passwords and log-in details or risk being exposed to a wide audience.

"The danger of using weak passwords has been exposed again this month after a new website was launched that allows people to watch live footage from some of the insecure cameras across the world," said Simon Rice, ICO group technology officer.

"The website, which is based in Russia, accesses the information by using the default log-in credentials, which are freely available online, for thousands of cameras."

The ICO had warned that thousands of webcams in homes, shops and offices could be vulnerable.

"The footage is being collected from security cameras used by businesses and members of the public, ranging from CCTV networks used to keep large premises secure, down to built-in cameras on baby monitors," Rice explained at the time.

"And with 350,000 of these cameras sold in the UK alone last year, this is a threat that all of us need to be aware of and be taking action to protect against."

Rice urged webcam users to change passwords and log-ins from the default admin options, and consider using stronger security protection.

The ICO recommends that people use strong, hard to guess passwords on their webcams, and that this should be a common theme across their whole technology estate.